


Cut me open and I still bleed red

by LibraryMage



Series: Rebels Mistborn AU [1]
Category: Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe, Child Abuse, Ezra Bridger: The Daddening, Gen, listen I haven't even read Mistborn yet but you can blame the Rebels discord server for this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 12:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19172986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: He needs to be near her (relative) innocence.  He needs to be near someone who’s never killed anyone.  Yet.~Ezra risks a secret visit with his daughter.





	Cut me open and I still bleed red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stardustgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/gifts).



> This fic is based on an AU by stardustgirl. In the Rebels discord server, she decided that canon for this AU is that Ezra has a kid, who is about 3 or 4 in this fic. And so this fic happened. (Note for any of my regular readers who are worried: Ephraim Bridger is not Ezra's father in this AU, so that's not who's beating Ezra up. Don't worry.)
> 
> Written for the Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt "bloodstained clothes." Title is from "Red" by Beth Crowley.
> 
> warning for: child abuse; a person being forced to kill someone

He isn’t supposed to see her.  He hasn’t been given permission, and if he’s caught, he knows he’ll be punished for it.  Or she will.  But he needs to see her.  He needs to be near her (relative) innocence.  He needs to be near someone who’s never killed anyone.

 _Yet_ , a treacherous voice in the back of his mind tells him.  He knows that will change one day.  His father will decide she needs to earn her keep, and her right to keep breathing, by using her abilities to spy and kill for him.  And Ezra knows when that day comes, he might not be able to save her.  He might not even be alive  _to_ save her.

He can see the window above him now.  It’s after midnight.  Shai will be asleep, and he can slip into the room for just a moment and see her before reporting to his father and finding out what he did wrong this time.  He killed the target and he hadn’t been spotted, but there was always something he did wrong.

Ezra Pulls on the strip of metal he’d left on her windowsill.  Somehow, no one’s found it and removed it yet.  He catches the edge of the window and pulls himself through it, only to freeze when he sees Shai sitting up in her bed, the small bundle of paper and charcoal pencil he’d stolen for her on her lap.  She stares at him with wide, frightened eyes, and Ezra is suddenly painfully aware of the blood that covers his clothing.  He doesn’t know how much is his.  He doesn’t know how much is from the man his father made him kill.  And he knows it doesn’t matter.

Shai screams, and Ezra stumbles into action, dropping to his knees beside the bed.

“Help!” Shai cries.

“Shai,” Ezra says quietly.  “It’s okay.”

“Y—you’re bleeding,” she says, her voice shaking.

“I’m okay,” Ezra says.  “I promise.  But I need you to be quiet.  I can't get caught here.”

Shai nods, but it’s already too late.  The door swings open and one of the men assigned to guard Shai enters the room.  Ezra instinctively shifts to place himself in front of Shai, shielding her from view.  The guard storms into the room and hauls Ezra to his feet.

“Watch the girl,” he says to his partner, still outside the door.  “I’ll deal with him.”

“No!” Shai cries.

“Shai, don’t,” Ezra says.  The girl freezes up, tears brimming in her wide green eyes as she watches Ezra being dragged away from her.  Ezra’s heart feels like something is squeezing the life from it.  He shouldn’t have come to see her.  He should have just gone to his father like he was supposed to.  Now his daughter has had to see him covered in blood, being dragged off by the guard, and she’s old enough and smart enough to know who he’s being brought to and what will happen to him.

When they reach his father’s office, he’s not surprised to see the man there, waiting for him to report back.

“He went to see the girl,” the guard says, wrenching on the arm that he holds twisted behind Ezra’s back.

The guard releases him and leaves, knowing that Ezra’s father will want to deal with him personally.  Ezra straightens up, squaring his shoulders as he forces himself to meet his father’s eyes.

“Don’t hurt Shai,” he says.

He expects the first punch.  He could dodge it easily, but he doesn’t dare to.

“You do not give me orders, boy,” his father says as Ezra’s right hand flies to his stinging cheek.

“Please,” Ezra chokes out.

“I never gave you permission to see her,” his father says.

“So punish me for it,” Ezra says.  “Not her.  She didn’t –”

His words are cut off as his father seizes him by the throat, shoving him back against the wall.  Ezra doesn’t resist even as he feels his father’s hand tightening, his fingers digging in, bruising his neck.

“Did you at least finish the job?” his father asks, punctuating the question by tightening his hand around Ezra’s throat.

Ezra nods as best as he can.  His father releases him and he gasps for air, not daring to move from where he stands against the wall.

“He’s dead, Master,” he says, suppressing a cough as he clutches at his throat with one hand, the other braced against the wall to hold himself up.  “I did what you wanted.”

His eyes flutter closed for a moment, his mind turning back to Shai and her wide, terrified eyes.

“I did what you said,” he says, his voice shaking.  “Please, don’t hurt her.”

Pain bursts across his face at the next blow.  His father grabs him by the front of his shirt and throws him to the floor.

“Your purpose is to serve me,” his father says.  “And you think you have the right to ask for something in exchange for doing what you’re told?”

“N—no, F—Master,” Ezra gasps.  “I – I didn’t mean –”

His words are cut off as his father’s boot comes down on his sprained wrist, drawing a cry of pain from Ezra’s throat.  Tears well up in Ezra’s eyes as his father presses down harder on his wrist for a moment before letting up.  As he tries to curl in on himself, his father’s hand finds his hair and drags him up onto his knees, wrenching his head back.

“The girl won't be harmed,” he says.  “ _This_ time.  But you weren’t supposed to see her, and you know I won't tolerate disobedience.”

With that, he throws Ezra to the floor again, kicking him in the stomach.  Ezra gasps as he feels a fresh trickle of blood flow from the wound in his side.  He presses his hand over the wound, feeling the blood seeping through his shirt.  He doesn’t care.  His father can do whatever he wants to him.  At least he isn’t hurting Shai.


End file.
